38% of recent iPhone buyers are refugees from Android and BlackBerry

Recent survey data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners shows that 42% of those in the U.S. that bought bought an iPhone in April were fleeing from another smartphone platform, 38% specifically from Android and BlackBerry. It's worth noting that the sample size was only around 521, which might not be big enough to be globally representative, depending on your standards, plus that sample was weeded out from an initial batch of 7,348 might color the results further. Still, I think the general sentiment that iPhone is roping in lots of folks from other platforms holds water.

Though this is only a measure of the gross influx of iPhone users, I doubt there are many outbound considering Apple's traditionally high loyalty rates. The research also shows that for 2% of buyers, the iPhone is their first mobile, and 22% were migrating from feature phones. That's a pretty small proportion, considering smartphone penetration in the U.S. is still under 50% in the U.S. Sure, it's a big leap to make from dumbphone to smartphone, and maybe the iPhone's adoption rate of first-timers is better than that of other platforms, but I would have guessed that iPhone would be pulling in more noobies than smartphone veterans.

Which smartphone platform did you come from before iPhone? Do you know anyone still packing a feature phone? You've been prodding them to get an iPhone, right?

Reader comments

38% of recent iPhone buyers are refugees from Android and BlackBerry

No question that Blackberry is bleeding users to iPhone. A breakout of the ratio of Android users would add some meaning to this statistic. Was it one Android user, or is it the majority of the converters? I for one have gone back and forth. My 4S is sitting inactivated on my desk and I am happy with the Galaxy Nexus... for now.

Recovering Android user here. Typically the reverse, I had an iPad for nearly two years before getting an iPhone, though I have had an iPod Touch since it was first launched.
Now having had the iPhone for the better part of a year, I can only feel confident that I was right to covet one for so long. The long wait for my carrier to broker an agreement with Apple to get the iPhone was painful but well worth it.

I have had BB's, androids, and a 4s. There are things that I like from each, and there are things that I don't. The big reason that I got a 4s was just to get something different, otherwise I probably would of got a droid razr. What am I going to get next? Who knows.

I've had a winding road to get to my iPhone. I started with a sidekick which was just awful.
Think I had that for maybe a month before changing to a Motorola Cliq XT which I really liked. But typical for lower end Motorolas, it was big on promises ("we'll be upgrading it from 1.5 soon!") and low on results ("No 2.1 for you!")
Fortunately, I moved to an area with zero T-Mobile reception so was able to drop contract without penalty.
After that, and LG Ally. Garbage phone that was made bearable by the dev community.
All this time, I resisted Apple. Once I realized I couldn't deal with the flakiness of Android though, it was time to take the iPhone plunge. Love it. Got rid of my old Windows laptop and got a MacBook Pro as well.

I would be interested to see how many Blackberry users flee to Android as opposed to Apple. My sister works in IT for a university and they support both Blackberry and Android but not iOS. When it comes time for the IT folks to get their phones, they all go with Android (so she reports).

I come from an IT background and can say that Android is so much more flexible in terms of its possible uses which is what draws the tech crowd. iOS is basically an app launcher with notifications - but the apps are ridiculously superior. After realizing I wasn't using the apps and was simply collecting them, I came back to Android (for phone, still have ipad) which really is a far different platform in terms of reliability from just a year ago. It used to really frustrate me. My opinion is that as people become more technically proficient, as a whole, they will want the functions Android provides. I am sure iOS will mature in that direction when it is needed by the masses though.

I am in reverse. My friends samsung galaxy s 2 was able to do a lot more things in my iphone! Rip music from YouTube, send funny pictures with music attached to them... And just a bunch of other things that I could not do with my iphone! I switched to android and I've never been happier!

try "what's app" multi platform text/picture messaging, free for one full year and only uses data, does not draw from limited texts on certain carriers. and...it work very well!!! use it all the time- I have iphone, friend has blackberry!!!

this is getting to be a serious misunderstanding with iphone users. You really do not have to use itunes anymore if you don't want to. I have 300 videos and over 4000 songs on my iphone and they were loaded unto it two different ways: one is real player, which makes it possible to download any video from you tube, convert it to mp4 and directly download it to the iphone and the other one is "copy trans suite" totally free and secure that gives you instant access to the iphone's file system to be able to load and unload any photos, songs or videos without itunes what so ever and it has been around for over a year and a half now. What's more, you really don't even need any of these things if you use cloud services such as dropbox, skydrive, and google music which all have apps for the iphone and can contain all of your files without having to resort to using your iphones internal storage. they all work well also.

real player has been around for a very long time, featuring rhapsody as it's music segment. real player (I believe it is up to version 15 now) will allow you to download any youtube or google video and many other videos (NO HULU). after downloading the video, which would be in FLV format, it includes an engine to convert those videos to many different formats. There is a tab on real player which allows you to burn CD's, DVD's and allows direct downloading of videos into iphone/ipod. Copy trans suite has been out for about a year and a half now and it is a GREAT method to get right into the file system of your iphone/ipod without having to download any other apps to do it or without the need to jailbreak if you are against jailbreak. While there are some things you have to pay for with copy trans suite - some like the photo part, but it is worth it, because it allows you to create different folders with different names in your iphone, but the transfer of video and music remains absolutly free with no gimmicks. You open copy trans suite on your computer, it tells you to hook iphone/ipod, and instantly you have your entire library of photos, videos and music right there in front of you. This computer based application then acts exactly like android in that it allows to you open up another window or finds your files and you then manually add/delete those files right into/out of you iphone/ipod totally without the use of itunes. It's extremely simple to use and self explanitory, but like any other drive hooke dup to your computer, in copy trans suite make sure you hit "eject" before unhooking your iphone/ipod. The only warning that I have for you concerning real player is this: if you have to connect your iphone/ipod to itunes for any reason and you hit "update" all of your files that were NOT originally loaded by itunes will dissapear, however, they will still be on your hard drive on the computer so you would have to reload them. Do as google seach on "real player" and "copy trans suite" I myself have been using copy trans suite since late 2010 and real player since 2002. Both very stable. good luck.

Palm OS to webOS to iOS. Love my 4S and iPad 3. What I love the most is that everything just works. I've spent nearly no time fiddling with my iOS devices while I seemed to always be tinkering with the others. Nice to have reliable gadgets.

I came to get an iPhone 4S from a BB9900 - I prefer the physical keyboard of the BB, but all my friends had gone over to the iPhone, so I went that way to stay in touch with people without Rogers killing me with text message fees. Yes, iMessage is what we all use as much as we can. I do have to admit - the apps on iOS are better than what was there for BB - and I don't have any fart apps installed!

Switched from android to 4s. I just got tired of the fragmentation. It seems like a lot of users want stock android and have to put up with custom UI's.
Also, and this may just be me, I tend to think apple devices age better than Android devices. I hate the feeling of having spent my hard earned money on what should be the latest and greatest device only to have some thing later and greater released a month later. I didn't get that feeling after buying a MacBook 2 years ago. Probably why I decided to try the 4s.

To be honest, there are times I miss android. This has become more infrequent after jail breaking and installing ncsettings.
If I could afford it I'd get a galaxy nexus just to fool with, but I'm happy thus far with the 4s.

Switched from Android(HTC Desire HD) to iPhone 4S 3month ago, absolutely nothing can come close to iPhone and iOS experience, i was an iPhone hater but now a true lover, Can't imagine back to android or other platforms

Went from Palm (Kyocera 7135) to windows mobile phone to blackberry Bold to iPhone 4. I run the iPhone 4 jailbroken because I want my home screen to be more than just apps. If IOS doesn't do something new to the the home screen my next phone may be android.

I have my iPhone 4S, and I have my BlackBerry Torch 9810. I use the 4S for personal stuff and the 9810 for business. I use them both an equal amount of time during my day. I love both devices, but I gotta say I'm partial to BlackBerry.

Although I use an iPhone, I have to question the statistical relevance of such a small sampling. However people are migrating to the Smartphone of choice, you need a reasonable sampling to be able to make conclusive commentary on why they are making the change. It begs to the saying; "there are lies, there are bigger lies and then there are statistics."

The numbers are completely worthless without breaking them out further and getting similar statistics for new buyers of other platforms.
Anybody who tries to draw any conclusions based on this is an id10t.

I had a "smartphone" in 2006 Windows based with a slide out keyboard. It was great till the carrier discovered they were letting us get free data and the shut it off. I would have paid for the data but at the time the only had it for Blackberry. So I went to black berry, that was my phone then the iPod touch came out. I loved it it was like a dream come true. But on could get WiFi and I was on the road a lot. In 2010 my carrier got Android, bought the biggest most advanced one they had. A year later i gave it to my oldest son and got the Nexus S 4g. Late in summer of 2011 a friend of mine gave me a "broken" AT&T iPhone 4. Which was great cause my iPod touch and my MacBook air had just past away. I am a very mobile person with 6 kids. I use my phone for everything: games, videos, Netflix, and web. Android was to fragmented, and the iPhone suited me better. I got the iPhone 4S for Christmas and have not looked back. I don't get 4G where I live and the screen may be smaller but it is clear and I live with it. Still wish both Android and iPhone had better games, but they are getting better.

I picked up an iPhone 4S after giving up my BB Tour 9630. The iPhone is a great phone. Some of the apps are just amazing...but I am really looking forward to BB10. The novelty of the iPhone disappeared after a couple months. I realized that all the games and most of the apps for iOS are very cool, but most of them are not necessary at all and what I really want is a true communication device. I miss BBM, I miss my notifications, and I REALLY miss bridging my BB device to my BlackBerry Playbook. iPhone, Android, and even Windows Phone are all really good in their own way... I feel I'm a BlackBerry guy at heart and hope they regain their piece of the pie. More competition is better for everybody!

Ex BB nut job here.... Tried a DroidX and iPhone but always went back to BB. All my friends left BB, so I "stomached" the iPhone. After jailbreaking, I can say I'm happy with it. I could not imagine having an iPhone without JB though.... It's too locked down. I'm curious about ICS and the SGSIII. Just afraid of the flakiness of Android again, though I may give it another shot.
BB10 looks promising, if they can get dev support and some decent apps. I've got to see for myself the "new" iPhone and BB10 phones, then I'll make a decision.
I love to follow the smartphone revolution we are experiencing.

I had a Sidekick LX before getting an iPhone. The Sidekick was crap. Although it was cool to flip the screen over and over again, it lacked basic functionality and features. It would keep freezing, the OS was laggy and although it was connected to the cloud, the cloud services would sometimes just go down, leaving you without contacts and text messages and other essential 'phone' things. My friend at school was selling her first gen iPhone for 50 bucks. The phone was in perfect shape too. I bought it, unlocked it for T-Mobile and jailbroke it and never looked back. So happy I made that decision.

I would expect the iPhone's first-time-buyer share is lower than Simon expects because Android has less expensive models, and the carriers feature them both in-store and online. Yes, you can get a last-gen iPhone cheap (or free), but in your local Verizon or AT&T store, you will see 3 large sections -- one for the latest iPhone, one for the current flagship Android model, and one containing a variety of less expensive Android handsets. As importantly, the personnel in-store will steer the budget-conscious consumer in that way. If you are a first-time buyer, and want an iPhone, you buy an iPhone. If, however, you are a first time buyer and are looking for suggestions, and the in-store expert is telling you this phone meets your needs and your budget, you are going to lean towards following their advice, and Android.
(For the record, I went Treo -> Blackberry -> iPhone, my wife went Blackberry -> Droid -> iPhone 4s -> Galaxy Nexus, and we are both happy with our respective platforms.)

I went from PalmOS (Treo 680) to an iPhone 3G. When I fled AT&T to Verizon, I wound up with a Blackberry. 14 months of hell later, I drop-kicked the Blackberry and got a Droid X, because Verizon didn't even have the iPhone announced yet and the WebOS phones were the the wrong form factor for me. My next phone will return me to an iPhone, the iPhone 5. On Verizon.

I had a berry for years and still have a BB Playbook. I tried a DROID incredible when my Storm 2 died but the battery sucked and the OS was waaaaay buggy. My first iOS device was an iPad 2. Last fall I went to a 4s, bought a used ipod for the speaker bar in the house, new iPad on launch day, and am wishing to I had bought a macbook pro instead of my HP last December. I miss my berry sometimes but it would take a hell of a lot for RIM to get me back. I never say never but let's just say I'm not planning on it, especially if the new iPhone gets at least a 4 inch display.

My smartphone history is pretty short, as way into the days of smartphones I had a perfectly working LG Secret.. Nice phone.. :D Anyhow in 2009 I got the Palm Pre. Loved it and it still is my favourite. I then went to a Droid 2 GLobal, and while I find Android interesting and fun, I like things to work more or less perfectly, so now I am with an interim Iphone, and looking forward to this fall, where I will make the choice between ICS which is supposedly better than GB, or the Iphone 5, or maybe even Windows 8. Lets see.

i started off with a palm centro and i really liked it. Two years later a palm pre+ and i loved that thing, palm did homebrew right. This last September i got a droid x2 and i honestly hope that Motorola gets screwed in some way for their poor execution of updates and support the the ui felt smooth as sandpaper and quite often i couldn't even listen to music because it would stutter and skip. I have put gingerbread and ics on my touchpad so i know how good android can be but it keeps getting dumbed down by oem's. So im going to stick with the iphone for a while.

I am arriving here on iPhone from BB via Android. I don't think RIM or BB is dead, it is just dull and their marketing is horrid. I jumped to Android when RIM had no idea of when the QNX based OS would be out. I went with a Moto Atrix 2, what a fantastic phone except there was a huge pause in ending calls, among other things. The HTC Inspire ate batteries like a crack addict eating donuts. The Android OS is fine but not as smooth or integrated as BB. There were many things that took too many steps to complete in Android vs BB. The big screen and fast processor was quite nice and very user friendly but somehow all the keyboards I tried, I could not be as accurate or as fast as I could with BB and iPhone!
How does iPhone make the tiny keys seem so darn accurate/big? I never got as good with Android in one year as I had been with BB in a few weeks. There are many minor things in iPhone that seem curious like no press and hold a dialer number to speed dial. Android had it, BB always had it. I know some will say that is nothing for iPhone due to the number of taps to get there, but it still should not be left out, I should have the option to not use it. I am liking the iPhone so far (4) but the battery life is surprisingly short compared to the Moto and the BBs I have used. I am only a week on iPhone so we'll see how it goes from here.
Maybe many BB types are heading to iPhone, but that will reverse when the next gen BBs come out later this year. I know I cannot wait for the new OS with the magic that TAT has added to it. If it is as good as the demos, I am gone and back to a strong/efficient communication device in a heartbeat.

I've gone from Palm(1) to PPC(3) to Apple(1) to BB(1) to Android(2) then back to Apple (4S)... If Apple can figure out widgets/live data applications I'll likely stick with them for a few generations or more, if not...

I owned 2 BB and a Droid. I started using an iPhone 4s back in November. Note each phon'es has strengths and weaknesses, but I prefer the 4s over the other phones. I found a lot of the Droid apps crude at best and lacking common sense features. BB email app the best of all.

"It's worth noting that the sample size was only around 521...plus that sample was weeded out from an initial batch of 7,348 might color the results further."
LOL. They gathered information from 7,348 people for the study, and only used 521 people? How exactly were these 521 'weeded out'? Hand picked? Random draw? I'd like to know this before I really care about this article.

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